Reporter’s blog on Chicago sit-in to become book (AP)
AP – A Washington Post reporter’s blog about the six-day occupation of a shuttered Chicago factory will be turned into a book, tentavively titled “Revolt on Goose Island.”
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Car Key Device Blocks Cell Phone Use While Driving – FOXNews
 TruckTrend Magazine |
Car Key Device Blocks Cell Phone Use While Driving
FOXNews - A new automobile ignition key can prevent teenagers from talking on cell phones or sending text messages while driving. The invention, by researchers at the University of Utah, is called Key2SafeDriving and is aimed at cutting down on road deaths. Wireless invention jams teen drivers' cell phones Wireless Invention Jams Teen Drivers' Cell Calls |
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Of Sumatran quakes and corals – Ars Technica
 Reuters |
Of Sumatran quakes and corals
Ars Technica - By Ethan Gutmann | Published: December 11, 2008 – 01:00PM CT The devastating tsunami that originated off the coast of Sumatra in 2004 was not the first, nor will it be the last, that this region of the world experiences. Corals Indicate Another Sumatra Quake Is Likely Sumatra quake likely in few decades |
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Best Buy to offer free Blu-ray player with HDMI, disc buy – Punch Jump
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Best Buy to offer free Blu-ray player with HDMI, disc buy
Punch Jump - by Marcus Lai Best Buy Co. Inc. on Sun. will offer a free Blu-ray player with the purchase of an HDMI cable and 10 select Blu-ray disc titles. 'Dark Knight' sets new Blu-ray sales record Optimizing Your PS3 for Blu-ray |
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There’s Gold In Them iPhones – Newsweek
 MobileShop.com |
There’s Gold In Them iPhones
Newsweek - Some kid in his bedroom can make a million bucks just by writing a little application for the Apple phone. Please fill in the following information and we'll email this link. Read all 'app store' posts in iPhone Approll Apple declares iPhone a challenger to Nintendo DS |
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Life-Threatening Blizzard Targets Mid-West States – Salem-News.Com
 Washington Post |
Life-Threatening Blizzard Targets Mid-West States
Salem-News.Com - (STATE COLLEGE, Pa.) – A potent storm sliding from the northern Rockies to the northern Plains will bring dangerous blizzard conditions from Montana to the Dakotas, AccuWeather. Blizzard warning issued for ND Blizzard warning issued for Twin Ports |
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20-Year Copyright Extensions Coming To Europe
unlametheweak points out a story at Ars Technica which begins: “After a UK government-led commission said that the current 50-year term for musical copyrights was fine, and the government last year publicly agreed that there was no need to extend the term, culture minister Andy Burnham yesterday made the logical follow-up announcement that yes, the government would now push for a 20-year extension on copyright. Turns out, it’s the moral thing to do. Actually, by framing the issue as a ‘moral case,’ Burnham gets to sidestep the entire issue of logic. Critics have already begun to charge that he is ignoring actual evidence and the well-regarded conclusions of the Gowers Report (PDF), not to mention previous government policy. But when the issue becomes a moral one and the livelihood of aging performers is at stake, it’s suddenly easier to avoid cost/benefit analysis.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Lawmakers urge FCC to delay contentious actions – Reuters
 NewsOXY |
Lawmakers urge FCC to delay contentious actions
Reuters - By Kim Dixon WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Key US lawmakers urged regulators on Friday to delay action on contentious items ahead of the transition to digital television, which will likely postpone a spectrum auction opposed by cell phone companies. FCC Cancels Meeting After Warning Lawmakers urge FCC to hold off controversial proposals |
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Long-Term Personal Data Storage?
BeanBagKing writes “Yesterday I set out in search of a way to store my documents, videos, and pictures for a long time without worrying about them. This is stuff that I may not care about for years, I don’t care where it is, or if it’s immediately available, so long as when I do decide to get it, it’s there. What did I come up with? Nothing. Hard Drives can fail or degrade. CD’s and DVD’s I’ve read have the same problem over long periods of time. I’d rather not pay yearly rent on a server or backup/storage solution. I could start my own server, but that goes back to the issue of hard drives failing, not to mention cost. Tape backups aren’t common for personal backups, making far-future retrieval possibly difficult, not to mention the low storage capacity of tape drives. I’ve thought about buying a bunch of 4GB thumb drives; I’ve had some of those for years and even sent a few through washers and driers and had the data survive. Do you have any suggestions? My requirements are simple: It must be stable, lasting for decades if possible, and must be as inexpensive as possible. I’m not looking to start my own national archive; I have less than 500GBs and only save things important to me.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Read all 'Window Mobile' posts in Wireless – CNET News
 ITProPortal |
Read all 'Window Mobile' posts in Wireless
CNET News - Once there was just a single Android phone, the T-Mobile G1. Coming soon, in Australia, is the Kogan Agora. Now reports are pointing to an emerging gadget for China, known for the moment as the "OPhone. Windows Mobile: What Microsoft Needs to Fix HTC Reports $528 Million Profit In November |
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BD+ Successfully Resealed
IamTheRealMike writes “A month on from the story that BD+ had been completely broken, it appears a new generation of BD+ programs has re-secured the system. A SlySoft developer now estimates February 2009 until support is available. There’s a list of unrippable movies on the SlySoft forums; currently there are 16. Meanwhile, one of the open source VM developers seems to have given up on direct emulation attacks, and is now attempting to break the RSA algorithm itself. Back in March SlySoft confidently proclaimed BD+ was finished and said the worst case scenario was 3 months’ work: apparently they underestimated the BD+ developers.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Week in review: Google's shiny Chrome Christmas – CNET News
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Week in review: Google's shiny Chrome Christmas
CNET News - Google delivered some shiny presents to good little users a bit before the holidays this year. In a surprise move, the search giant took its Chrome Web browser out of beta this week, in the hopes that business partners, such as computer makers, … Final Chrome Version Boosts Rendering Speed Google Releases Browser Security Handbook |
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Will 2009 Be the Turning Point For SSDs?
Iddo Genuth writes “Since first entering the consumer market about two years ago, solid state drives (SSDs) have improved significantly. While prices remain substantially higher than conventional magnetic storage, it is predicted that in 2009 SSDs will finally make an impact on both the consumer and business markets bringing blazing fast speeds at reasonable prices for the first time — will it finally happen?” It seems likely, as Samsung began mass-producing both 128GB and 256GB SSDs this year. Intel and Micron have also posted recent breakthroughs which will help to bring the technology into the mainstream.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Windows XP: The OS That Won't Quit – PC World
 TechRadar UK |
Windows XP: The OS That Won't Quit
PC World - Phasing out an old operating system is nothing new for Microsoft, but Windows XP is unique in that it may be too good to die. Though market share for Windows XP dropped nearly 10 percent in 2008 as Vista slowly made gains, XP still has a market share … The 10 Biggest Microsoft Stories Of 2008 Why So Little Buzz Surrounding Windows 7? |
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Survey Asks: Internet Access or Sex? – New York Times
 eFluxMedia |
Survey Asks: Internet Access or Sex?
New York Times - By Ashlee Vance Intel came up with a novel way to show how important the Internet and computing have become in the lives of Americans. Intel Survey Finds the Internet Almost as Important as Sex … Survey Shows 46% of Women Choose Internet over Sex |
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[audio] Attempted Murderer Gave It His Best Shot
Onion Radio News – with Doyle Redland
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When Will Sony's 'Home' Come Out of Beta? – PC Magazine
 Telegraph.co.uk |
When Will Sony's 'Home' Come Out of Beta?
PC Magazine - by 1UP Staff Home has officialy gone live, but there are still a few questions to be asked. For example, if this is a beta, when is the full launch? Playstation Home Beta Opens To the Public Home Impressions |
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Mars Phoenix Lander’s Ovens Were Destined To Fail
RobertB-DC writes “The Phoenix mission to Mars’ frigid polar regions was going to be tricky from the start, with only a few weeks to perform as much science as possible. Success depended on everything working right. But one of the mission’s most frustrating glitches — the stuck doors on the TEGA ovens — could have been prevented with basic quality control on Earth. Nature is reporting that bad brackets were replaced by the manufacturer … with identically bad brackets. The Planetary Society blog sums it up succinctly: ‘Ouch. Ouch ouch ouch.’”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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FCC cancels meeting at U.S. lawmakers’ request (Reuters)
Reuters – The U.S. Federal Communications Commission said on Saturday it was canceling a December 18 meeting in response to a request by Democratic lawmakers that it pay more attention to a smooth transition to digital television early next year.
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In-the-works video games cater to music fans (Reuters)
Reuters – With more than $1 billion in sales and 50 million tracks downloaded between them — on a base of only about 350 songs — the “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band” video-game franchises emerged this year as serious moneymakers for the music industry. But are they bringing in enough per track?
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Cisco discovers the Free Software Foundation wasn't joking – CNET News
 Digitaltrends.com |
Cisco discovers the Free Software Foundation wasn't joking
CNET News - When I read that the Free Software Foundation (FSF) is suing Cisco over alleged violations of the GNU General Public License (GPL), my first reaction was, "Put that subpoena back in your pocket, FSF. Cisco Hit With Open Source Lawsuit Free Software Group Sues Cisco For Open Source Violations |
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New G.hn ITU Standard for Home Networks (PC World)
PC World – The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has approved a standard for high-speed networking over multiple types of in-home wiring.
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CNNMoney Calls PS3 "A Sinking Ship" – 1UP.com
 Reuters |
CNNMoney Calls PS3 "A Sinking Ship"
1UP.com - By Garnett Lee, 12/12/2008 Fallout from the November sales data continues to mount for Sony and its PlayStation family. CNNMoney's Silicon Alley Insider column pulled no punches in its assessment of the numbers calling the PS3 "A sinking ship" in light … 2008 Year in Review Wii Leads Gains in Videogame Sales |
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November video game sales near $3 billion (AP)
AP – Americans may be cutting back on holiday shopping, but they are still buying video games to the tune of nearly $3 billion in November, according to data from market researcher NPD Group.
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Loose Ball Evades Entire NBA
EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ—A Devin Harris three-point attempt that caromed wildly off the back of the rim during the third quarter of Wednesday night’s New York Knicks—New Jersey Nets game has created a disruption involving the entire NBA,…
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How Do I Manage Seasoned Programmers?
An anonymous reader writes “I have a technology background and worked as a programmer for a few years before slipping over to the dark side. I am now on the business side and have been given responsibility for a small team of Java programmers. While the technology aspect of what my team works on doesn’t scare me, I need ideas to make sure the team stays motivated while reporting to me, a business-oriented guy. Perhaps I should mention I am in my early 30s while the majority of the team constitute an older, wiser generation. What advice should I follow to avoid turning into yet another Bill Lumbergh?”
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US video game sales grew 10 percent in November
The US video game industry recorded growth of 10 percent in November despite the recession that is ravaging other sectors of the economy, NPD said Thursday.
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Nortel gets delisting notice
Telecommunications is, by most analyst’s accounts, one of a relative handful of industries that continue to do well during the recession, but Nortel apparently hasn’t gotten the memo.
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Jerry Jones Probably Thinking About Signing Michael Vick
DALLAS—Dallas head coach Wade Phillips speculated Wednesday that if recent history is any indicator, Jerry Jones is “almost certainly”…
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Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 Now Final
beetle496 writes “It has been going on nine years now, but finally there are formal standards for Web accessibility for technologies other than HTML. They ask that you start with the press release (lots of links), but regulars might be more entertained by the last time WCAG made the front page here. Many folks here will point out that web accessibility is old hat, and by implication this is hardly news, but if you do Web development for any government organization, you should expect that accessibility is a base requirement. The Section 508 standards are to be updated (relatively) soon too.”
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Estonia to vote by mobile phone in 2011 (AP)
AP – Parliament has approved a law making Estonia the first country to allow voting by mobile phone.
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Photos of the Damage To the Large Hadron Collider
holy_calamity writes “CERN have released images of the damage done to the world’s most powerful machine, the Large Hadron Collider, when an electrical fault caused a helium leak. New Scientist has posted them, along with explanations of what you can see. The sudden burst of gas shifted some of the huge superconducting magnets by half a meter, causing at least $21 million in damage.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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The Shimmering Mirage of iPhone Copy/Paste – CRN
 Macworld |
The Shimmering Mirage of iPhone Copy/Paste
CRN - Pastebud, the latest third-party effort to bring copy/paste functionality to the iPhone, achieves its goal in a roundabout fashion. Wisemen bring Jesus Phone (free) cut-and-paste Pastebud brings Web-based copy and paste to iPhone |
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Radio stations untangle more direct Web connections (Reuters)
Reuters – Radio companies took a giant step forward in 2008 by embracing online and mobile applications like never before.
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Microsoft: IE5, IE6 also affected by browser vulnerability
An unpatched vulnerability found in Internet Explorer 7 also affects older versions of the browser as well as the latest beta version, Microsoft warned.
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Illinois Governor Arrested
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested Tuesday on corruption charges stemming from an alleged conspiracy to sell or trade the Senate seat left…
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Rule Eases a Mandate Under a Law on Wildlife – New York Times
 BBC News |
Rule Eases a Mandate Under a Law on Wildlife
New York Times - By FELICITY BARRINGER The Interior Department on Thursday announced a rule that has largely freed federal agencies from their obligation to consult independent wildlife biologists before they build dams or highways or permit construction of … Administration Loosens Species Protections Major changes to Endangered Species Act |
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Lie To Cover Surprise Party Sounds More Fun Than Surprise Party
HOPATCONG, NJ—A lie told to 28-year-old Kyle Bida to cover up a surprise birthday party to be held in his honor later this evening sounds a…
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2008′s biggest digital music holdouts and winners (Reuters)
Reuters – The Rebels: The rise of digital distribution has challenged many long-held beliefs about the art and commerce of the music industry. In the past year, the following acts challenged right back by refusing to play along in the Internet age.
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Multifunction devices pose tax headache for EU policymakers
EU officials are debating what distinguishes a printer from a copier, or a phone from a TV. The distinction could add up to 14 percent in duty to product prices
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